Feng Yu Jiu Tian vol.29 ch.6/3

Translator: churnie

The sun sets over western hills, the hard work of the day is finally over, the warden’s shouts can be heard from afar, the laborers can finally put down the heavy wood and stones, and drag their weary pace to gather at the place where the dinner is distributed.

In order to meet the deadline for the construction of the city wall, Shugu city pay a little bit of money, and don’t skimp on food for the laborers, not only do they have porridge made from last year’s old rice for dinner, but they even give each of them a steamed bun.

In Su Jin Chao’s eyes, these foods are worse than his dog’s, what’s more, there are many people who eat a lot of food, not only do they have to queue up for distribution of meals, but they often have to fight with others in order to get an extra steamed bun, this kind of slaves, no! This kind of people’s ignorant and immoral conduct, Young Master Su is disdain at.

But… After starving a few times, young master Su finally understands that he can disdain at those unmannered guys, but he definitely mustn’t disdain at his own growling stomach.

“You sit down, and I’ll go get the food.” Seeing the densely packed long line of people waiting for the dinner distribution under the twilight, Su Jin Chao steps forward with great loyalty.

All along, Mian Ya has been doing things like fetching water and getting food, but today, he was whipped because of himself, and young master Su is quite sympathetic.

Mian Ya drags him back and rolls his eyes, “By the time you come back with the food, I’ll be starved to death. You should sit down for me.”

Such a delicate young master, almost got beaten by people when he went to pour a cup of cold water today.

Going to get something to eat among the hungry-eyed crowd after a tiring day, don’t know what trouble he’s going to cause.

Mian Ya walks towards the place where the meal is served with easy steps, and the whip wound seems to be no hindrance to him at all, Su Jin Chao watches him disappear into the crowd from a distance, like a drop of water mixed into a well.

After a while, he suddenly comes out from another place, holding two full earthen bowls in his hand.

“Let’s eat.”

Su Jin Chao takes the earthen bowl, lowers his head and sniffs the rice porridge, it’s not bad, but has a musty smell, he frowns and begin to drink silently.

Mian Ya squats on the ground, holding the earthen bowl in one hand, looking at him out of the corner of his eyes, seeing him drinking slowly without saying a word, thinking, if this kid is well-behaved, he won’t be annoying.

Take another look.

He also thinks to himself, noble is noble, he can actually drink rice porridge so gracefully too.

The two finish the porridge in silence, and Mian Ya takes out two steamed buns from his bosom, gives one to Su Jin Chao, the steamed buns are mixed with rice bran, which is hard and unpalatable, but if they don’t eat them, how will they have the energy to do tomorrow’s work?

Every time Su Jin Chao takes a bite, he straightens his neck and swallows it desperately, after a long time, he finally finishes eating.

“Do you want more?” Like magic, Mian Ya takes out another steamed bun from his bosom.

Su Jin Chao shakes his head, wondering why Mian Ya is able to get more food than the quota every time, in a group of laborers where everyone wants to eat more, it takes a lot of skill to do so.

If one’s ability is not strong enough, one may not even be able to receive the limited food for one’s own share.

At the beginning, Su Jin Chao always wanted to ask Mian Ya how he did it, but Mian Ya smiled mysteriously every time and replied, “I’ll tell you if you recognize the name Little meat worm.”

How could Su Jin Chao agree?

So even though he couldn’t figure it out, now he held back his curiosity and stopped asking.

After dinner in the square, the two drink two bowls of water, then stand up and walk side by side to the sleeping shed.

“We must find a way to escape.” Su Jin Chao speaks through gritted teeth.

“En.”

“En, what? You think of a way quickly.”

“Why should I think of a way?”

Because you are capable!

Su Jin Chao thinks so in his heart, but his mouth is very firm, “Because you were the one who foolishly let the two of us be arrested and become civilian labors!”

“I was so stupid that I didn’t let you be trampled to death by the horse of those boys from Diligent Army.” 

“Humph.”

“Humph.” Mian Ya also snorts.

It’s easy for him to escape from this civilian labor camp, but he has never tried it even once.

So what about escaping?

Once he escapes, Su Jin Chao must be clamoring to go home, should he escort him back to Xiqin and watch him walk into his resplendent home, or should he just break up and never see each other again?

The Great King wants himself to use him.

However, he is just a little fool with a noble background and not open-mind.

Working as a coolie every day, eating old rice porridge, and risking being whipped, for Su Jin Chao, it may be a hell that he has never been to in this life, but for Mian Ya, it is a thing not worth mentioning.

Sheltering the little meat worm from the wind and rain, shielding the whip, grabbing water and fighting for food for the little meat worm, and lying on a dirty hardwood bed with the little meat worm at night, Mian Ya even thinks that such days are good, so it might as well last longer.

If Su Jin Chao beside him knows these thoughts, don’t know how much he will hate him.

Mian Ya turns his head and glances at Su Jin Chao, with a faint smile yet not a smile.

“Maybe we can try climbing the wall, the high wall over there, if we can climb over it and we will be outside the city.” Su Jin Chao is immersed in his own plan.

“There is a group of soldiers stationed outside the wall, equipped with bows and arrows, you have been shot into a hedgehog before you even hit the ground.”

“Disguised as a food delivery person to sneak out?”

“The food delivery person is also a civilian labor, but they just live in another civilian labor camp. Are you planning to escape from one civilian labor camp to another? That’s very creative.” The last word was heard from Duke Ming.

“Pei!”

Bowing down and walking into the low and simple work shed for the civilian labors to sleep in, most of the workers in the same shed have returned, the room is filled with an unpleasant smell of sweat and feet, there are many people lying in a mess on the plank bed made of disorder logs, some of them are lying on their backs with their limbs open, snoring like thunder.

But the corner near the only small window is empty, and no one dares to occupy it, it’s the cleanest and most comfortable place in the entire plank beds, and it’s also where Su Jin Chao and Mian Ya slept these days.

Being able to occupy the best sleeping position in the shed is obviously the result of Mian Ya showing his strength a little.

“Big brother Mian Ya, you’re back.” A thin figure runs over excitedly, seeing Mian Ya’s arm covered with messy herbs, his expression changes, “You were beaten?”

The civilian labor who also work here are of course familiar with the matter of being whipped.　　

This little guy is called Si Huan, he is actually eighteen or nineteen years old, he probably never has enough to eat, his feet are short and his stature is short, he is not as tall as a fifteen years old boy, he comes to build the city wall because he’s greedy for food here.

“Small matter.” Mian Ya pats Si Huan’s head, “Have you had dinner yet?”

“The steamed bun was robbed.” Si Huan is sad.

He is small and weak, so he is always easily bullied, he is also very familiar with such things as being robbed of steamed buns.

Mian Ya takes out the steamed bun that Su Jin Chao has rejected just now from his bosom, and throws it into his bosom.

Si Huan immediately beams with joy, but he’s reluctant to eat it, and put the steamed bun in his arms cherishingly, “I leave this to my mother.”

Mian Ya knows that there’s only one crippled old woman in his family, and she always has to walk several miles to visit her son every other day, to sew and wash his son’s clothes.

“How will you work tomorrow if you are not eat enough? Be careful you’ll get whipped again. You eat that, and leave this to your old lady.” Mian Ya takes out another steamed bun from his bosom and throws it to Si Huan.

“How many steamed buns are hidden in your clothes?” Su Jin Chao asks in disbelief.

“A lot. If you’re hungry, I can get you another one.”

“I’m not hungry, I just wonder if Si Huan’s steamed buns were robbed by you.”

“It was not Big Brother Mian Ya, it was that Gao Lao Liu in the next room, the most domineering one.” Si Huan gets two steamed buns and can’t help but put one in his arms for his old lady, and bit the other fiercely while holding it to his mouth, seeing Su Jin Chao looking around on the plank beds, as if he was looking for something, he quickly remembers and says, “Big brother Su, my mother came here today, she said that you and Big brother Mian Ya often take care of me, and she didn’t know anything else to do, so she took your dirty clothes to wash. Wait until they are clean and dry before sending them over.”

Mian Ya disapproves and says, “Si Huan, you shouldn’t make your old lady tired.”

Si Huan says with a bitter face, “Big brother Mian Ya, she won’t listen to me, so just let her be. Besides, I think Big brother Su is a very clean person, always complaining that the unclean clothes itch on his body, it just so happened that my mother heard it the last time she came.”

Su Jin Chao, a son of a dignified family, was always view himself as the core figure since he was a child, and now he is called “big brother” by a short and skinny civilian boy, he is not proud, but he also doesn’t have any opinions, he’s quite happy to find that someone is willing to help him wash the clothes, he immediately treats Si Huan better, nodding and saying, “There are two holes on the clothes, ask your old lady to mend them carefully.”

 “All right!”

After everyone falls asleep, the only small oil lamp in the shed is blown out.

Snoring comes and goes.

In the middle of the night, Mian Ya’s eyelids open silently, and his eyes are sober as if he had never fallen asleep, he finds that his right arm is heavy, it turns out that he’s hugged by Su Jin Chao who is beside him, he presses half of his face against his upper arm.

The moonlight shines in through the small window, and it’s silvery white, it actually softens the edges and corners of Su Jin Chao’s face when he’s sleeping soundly, making him look a little baby-like.

Mian Ya quietly pushes his hand away from him, he supports his head on the pillow, and he himself gets out of bed.

Unexpectedly, Su Jin Chao usually sleeps too much, but this night because of the whiplash on Mian Ya’s body, he unconsciously becomes concern, after being swayed and supported by Mian Ya, he wakes up in a daze and sits up rubbing his eyes.

When he finds that Mian Ya is about to leave, Su Jin Chao is startled, and immediately awakes completely, he climbs out of bed and hugs Mian Ya tightly, asking in panic, “Are you going to leave me and run away? No, you have to take me with you.”

 “I’m just going to steal steamed buns.” Mian Ya whispers.

“I’m full, why do you still want to steal steamed buns in the middle of the night?” Su Jin Chao is not an idiot, hearing Mian Ya speak in a low voice, his own voice naturally softens.

“Don’t you still have to eat tomorrow.”

“You’re lying.”

“If you don’t believe me, I’ll take you with me.”

“All right.”

Mian Ya turns around and smiles at him.

Su Jin Chao just feels that the smile seems to have some meaning, and is still thinking, when there’s a gust of wind in his ears, he receives a slap on the back of his head, his eyes darken immediately, and he collapses on the ground.

Mian Ya hugs Su Jin Chao, who has almost fallen to the ground, and put him back on the bed and arrange him, he suddenly feels a little strange, he turns his head suddenly and finds a pair of small eyes staring at him in the darkness.

It turns out that Si Huan is also awakened.

Mian Ya calls Si Huan over and tells, “I’ll go out to see the moon and stars, don’t wake up others, help me to take care of Big brother Su.”

Of course Si Huan doesn’t believe that he’s going out to see the moon and stars, so he can’t help asking, “Brother Mian Ya, are you going to steal something?”

Mian Ya doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry, he nods.

This Si Huan believes it. These days, Big brother Mian Ya often gave him steamed buns, if it wasn’t for stealing, how could there be so many steamed buns?

Mian Ya gives Si Huan instructions, seeing Su Jin Chao lie on the plank bed and his posture is a little crooked, so he helps him straighten up to lie in the middle of the broken pillow, he can’t help touching the back of his head, and feels relieved that there’s no lump.

Then he slips out of the shed.

There are guards patrolling at night outside the shed and near the quarry, Mian Ya doesn’t care this kind of rough security at all, like a fish swimming in water, he slips out of the construction site silently and easily, and rushed to the agreed place that he and Chang Huai have hastily agreed upon during the day.